Wednesday, April 2, 2008

A free Rahsaan Roland Kirk download

If you likes downloading teh free music (legally), you really should be registered at AllAboutJazz.com. Doesn’t cost you a thing, and they got a database of 1,000 FREE MP3s!

One of them is by the late, great Rahsaan Roland Kirk... it’s a sprightly rendition of the Motown hit “My Girl,” performed live in Germany in 1972. Mr. Kirk plays it on the flute and the nose flute.

Click here to stream “My Girl” on my Vox blog.

Follow this link to AllAboutJazz to download the track (if you’re registered).

The complete RRK live album – “Brotherman in the Fatherland” – is available in digital format at eMusic, Amazon and iTunes.

And here’s something extra: a 2½-minute video introduction to Roland Kirk and his many horns (including that nose flute)...

3 comments:

DeAngelo Starnes said...

Thanks for this Dave!

Rahsaan is one of the undersung saxophone heroes in jazz history!

His playing two or three wind instruments at once is a phenomenal feat by itself. But he does more than that. He harmonizes and plays counter melodies with them. Almost like a piano player using both hands.

Check out Rahsaan Rahsaan for an example of this. He does a solo where he plays two melodies on two saxophones at the same time.

Don't get me started on the nose flute.

He's a helluva clarinet player, too.

The Inflated Tear is an awesome piece.

I could go on, but won't.

Great musician and great entertainer.

Destruction said...

I commented on Rahsaan in another thread on this blog. I've seen him do all the things Deangelo mentions...and that was AFTER his stroke. I had about 10 people come up to me at the Famous Ballroom in Baltimore to say..."Man you should have seen him before that". "Great musician and great entertainer"...and one Intelligent man.

He was one of the first people to explain to me why I should put down my books once in awhile and get out and about as many different places as I could and meet as many people. He said, therein lies true education.
The biggest difference I noticed between Rahsaan and Sun Ra (a personal fave of mine) is that Rahsaan was more accommodating to his audience. Everybody got something they could relate to. Whereas Sun-Ra would do his thing and say, follow or get left behind.

I miss them both.

Undercover Black Man said...

^ I appreciate your contributions to all these threads, Des. Not only do I wish I could've seen Rahsaan live... I wish somebody was out there carrying on the way he did.